The autumn leaves are falling like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are always two cups at my table.

T’ang Dynasty poem

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men ~

Thursday, June 09, 2011

Who Needs Fiction: Crazy Hockey Parents

I thought you’d find this interesting. My immediate boss has a 10 year old who plays travel hockey and they were at a tournament in Canada over the holidays. One of the teams they played is ranked as the #2 team in North America (for 10 year olds!) and were losing to the American team.

The Canadian parents were going nuts. They got really ugly. The Canadians managed to win the game in the end, but it was an embarrassment for them to have to come from behind to beat some nobody American team.

After the game it was still ugly. The American coach came walking off the ice with a water bottle in each hand when one of the Canadian parents came up and grabbed him two handed by the throat and started to threaten him.

The American coach gave him the option of removing his hands or having his hands removed. The Canadian responded by jamming his thumbs into the American’s throat.

The American coach is a 3rd Dan in Karate.

As described by my boss, he swung his arms over, in and down to collapse the Canadian’s arms at the elbow and swept his feet out from under him, causing him to go down hard.

As another Canadian parent was reaching in towards the American, there was a wave of people who swept over them basically leaving a pile of bodies all heaped on top of the American at the bottom. There was a loud ‘snap’, followed by the Canadian who was reaching in to start screaming his head off.

By that time the police arrived and started to sort things out. The American coach and others who got roughed up pressed charges.

It was the third offense in a hockey arena for that Canadian parent who started the whole thing. He’s been charged with something or another and is looking at a couple of years of prison time. The prosecutor was pretty confident that he’d win the case and felt the defendant needed to be an example to other out of control hockey parents.

The Canadian team coach apologized to the American team. He said he’s not a parent coach, but a paid coach and will be removing some kids from the roster.

The tournament director felt that the Canadian kids shouldn’t be punished for their parents being morons, but banned the parents from the arena for the rest of the tournament, which the Canadian kids went on to win. The only adults associated with the team to see them win were their coaches.

The whole thing was recorded on a security camera. The American coach filed a freedom of information act (Canadian equivalent) request to obtain it for the civil case he’s filing. It’s sure to make its way around the hockey club and I will eventually get to see it.

Who needs fiction?

How do you think you would have responded in the American coach's shoes?